Lie Detectors

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komal: Legendary Member; Posts: 777; Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2010 4:02 am; Location: Mumbai, India; Thanked: 117 times; Followed by:47 members

Lie Detectors

by komal » Mon Feb 08, 2010 7:57 pm

The use of lie detectors is based on the assumption
that lying produces emotional reactions in an individual
that. in turn, create unconscious phYSiological
responses.
(A) that, in turn, create unconscious physiological
responses
(8) that creates unconscious physiological
responses in turn
(C) creating, in turn, unconscious physiological
responses
(D) to create, in turn, physiological responses that
are unconscious
(E) who creates unconscious physiological
responses in turn

OA A

https://www.e-gmat.com/

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Mon Feb 08, 2010 7:57 pm

money9111: Legendary Member; Posts: 2109; Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:25 pm; Location: New Jersey; Thanked: 109 times; Followed by:79 members; GMAT Score:640

by money9111 » Mon Feb 08, 2010 8:59 pm

I chose C... can you tell me why this is wrong? in my head as I was reading it I subliminally told myself... creating

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hrishi19884: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 407; Joined: Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:20 am; Location: India; Thanked: 20 times; Followed by:1 members

by hrishi19884 » Tue Feb 09, 2010 8:02 am

komal wrote:The use of lie detectors is based on the assumption
that lying produces emotional reactions in an individual
that. in turn, create unconscious phYSiological
responses.
(A) that, in turn, create unconscious physiological
responses
(8) that creates unconscious physiological
responses in turn
(C) creating, in turn, unconscious physiological
responses
(D) to create, in turn, physiological responses that
are unconscious
(E) who creates unconscious physiological
responses in turn

OA A

Subject : lying produces emotional reactions in an individual.

Object : remaining part.

Subject(is the one that can stand alone as a sentence)
Object(cannot stand alone)

Now, here in A -- "that" correctly restricts "physiological responses" from modifying "individual"

instead "phYSiological responses" correctly modifies "emotional reactions"

since "emotional reactions" is plural we need create and not creates.

But let's see the remaining options also -

we need create - So rules out B, E

C- says that "individual, creating..." -- Is it the individual who create unconscious physiological responses? No it's the
"emotional reactions"
so, C ruled out .

D - says that " individual to create" --same error as in C
so ruled out.

Clearly A makes it !

Hrishi

"As you sow, so shall you reap"

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hrishi19884: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 407; Joined: Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:20 am; Location: India; Thanked: 20 times; Followed by:1 members

by hrishi19884 » Tue Feb 09, 2010 8:29 am

money9111 wrote:I chose C... can you tell me why this is wrong? in my head as I was reading it I subliminally told myself... creating

Hey brother.....just saw your blogspot. It's really awesome.

But, who is the guy walking ahead of you(off with a jacket)? It must be Tom Cruise or Bruce Willis or Ben Stiller

Hrishi

"As you sow, so shall you reap"

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mgmt_gmat: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 221; Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2008 6:24 pm; Thanked: 2 times

by mgmt_gmat » Thu Feb 11, 2010 6:17 am

IMO (A)...

that refers to individual...

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hk_4u: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 79; Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:16 pm

by hk_4u » Mon Feb 15, 2010 8:51 am

Why C is incorrect?

C says: The use of lie detectors is based on the assumption that lying produces emotional reactions in an individual creating, in turn, unconscious physiological responses.

Here creating, in turn, unconscious physiological responses is a present participle clause without comma which correctly modifies immediately preceding noun or noun phrase, which in this case is emotional reactions in an individual.

As per OG , creating modifies lying - Not able to make sense out of it

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vineetbatra: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 355; Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:42 pm; Thanked: 2 times; Followed by:1 members

by vineetbatra » Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:02 pm

hk_4u wrote:Why C is incorrect?

C says: The use of lie detectors is based on the assumption that lying produces emotional reactions in an individual creating, in turn, unconscious physiological responses.

Here creating, in turn, unconscious physiological responses is a present participle clause without comma which correctly modifies immediately preceding noun or noun phrase, which in this case is emotional reactions in an individual.

As per OG , creating modifies lying - Not able to make sense out of it

I agree, that is exactly my question. An Ing modifier without a comma modifies the noun preceding it, since in an individual is a prepositional phrase it modifies Emotional Reactions.

Can we get an expert resolve this query?

Thanks,

Vineet

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Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; Followed by:694 members; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Fri Apr 16, 2010 6:41 am

Received a PM asking me to reply.

I don't see a source for this problem. Can you please cite the source? Then I will be happy to reply!

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tryinghard: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 11; Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:55 am

by tryinghard » Sat Apr 17, 2010 9:26 am

Stacey,

This is an OG 12 Q, I guess you do not respond to OG questions. Can you please give a general idea.

Thanks,

Kapil

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Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; Followed by:694 members; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Mon Apr 19, 2010 12:22 pm

Ok, thanks for the source. Let's use some different sentences to examine the principle.

The original sentence:

The use of GMAT books is based on the assumption that studying produces hormones in an individual that, in turn, create unconscious physical responses. (Yes, I know the meaning of the sentence is kind of amusing - I'm trying to match some singular and plural stuff in the original sentence!)

The "in turn" bit is just a little modifier tossed in to break up the sentence a bit and confuse you. Ignore it!

The use of GMAT books is based on the assumption that studying produces hormones in an individual that create unconscious physical responses.

Core:
The use <of X> is based on the assumption that studying produces <Y>.

Modifier Y:
hormones <in A> that create <Z> responses

No problems with core or modifier so far. I assume that the people who chose C thought there was something wrong with A, so let me know what you thought was wrong.

Now, adapting our new sentence for choice C:

The use of GMAT books is based on the assumption that studying produces hormones in an individual creating, in turn, unconscious physical responses.

Core:
The use <of X> is based on the assumption that studying produces <Y>.

Modifier Y:
hormones <in an individual creating responses?>

Still no problem in the core. That modifier, though... that's messy. There's no comma between "individual" and "creating" and that's a big problem. Try this phrase:
"stress in an individual studying hard for the GMAT"

What does that "studying hard for the GMAT" refer to? In this sentence, it's modifying the individual - and that makes sense.

But what about our example above? It's ambiguous here - "individual" is a candidate for the noun, because an individual can create unconscious responses... and so can the hormones... and, hey, so can studying! Which is it? Ambiguity = bad.

Note that there is no ambiguity in A, because the conjugated verb "create" can match only with a plural subject, so it must match with the plural "hormones." Now we know that it's definitely the hormones creating the responses.

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vineetbatra: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 355; Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:42 pm; Thanked: 2 times; Followed by:1 members

by vineetbatra » Sun Apr 25, 2010 12:38 pm

Thanks for the response Stacey. I didn't think that there was anything particularly wrong with A.

My question was specifically with the OG explanation for C. It said that creating is modifying lying and in your example studying; however to what I understand that an ing modifier without a comma modifies preceding noun, it cannot modify an individual because an individual is an prepositional phrase so it should modify reactions, and in your example hormones.

This question does shake the existing understanding of ing modifiers without a comma.

Some light ....

Thanks again.

Vineet

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Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; Followed by:694 members; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Tue Apr 27, 2010 12:33 pm

"individual" is not a prepositional phrase, not by itself. By itself, it's a noun. And you can have an -ing word modify the noun in a prepositional phrase. (The prepositional phrase is "in an individual.")

For example:
Cheating causes problems for students trying to pass the test honestly.

(Clunky, yes. If I were writing an ideal sentence, I might want to say "for students who are trying..." but technically I can say it the way I said it in the example above.)

"for students" is a prepositional phrase. Who is trying to pass the test honestly? The students.

I don't have my OG book handy so can't comment on the explanation given in the book, but I will say that I have found some OG explanations, in the past, that are confusing, borderline misleading, and sometimes outright wrong, both in terms of actual grammar rules and in terms of contradicting other explanations for their own problems. (That last doesn't happen that often, but it does happen.) The questions are the best. The explanations are not.

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vineetbatra: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 355; Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:42 pm; Thanked: 2 times; Followed by:1 members